1 * WARNING: New versioning scheme for Automake.
3 - Beginning with the release 1.13.2, Automake has started to use a
4 more rational versioning scheme, that should allow users to know
5 which kind of changes can be expected from a new version, based
8 + Micro releases (e.g., 1.13.3, 2.0.1, 3.2.8) introduce only bug
9 and regression fixes and documentation updates; they should not
10 introduce new features, nor any backward-incompatibility (any
11 such incompatibility would be considered a bug, to be fixed with
12 a further micro release).
14 + Minor releases (e.g., 1.14, 2.1) can introduce new backward
15 compatible features; the only backward-incompatibilities allowed
16 in such a release are new *non-fatal* deprecations and warnings,
17 and possibly fixes for old or non-trivial bugs (or even inefficient
18 behaviours) that could unfortunately have been seen and used by
19 some as "corner case features". Possible disruptions caused by
20 this kind of fixes should hopefully be quite rare, and their
21 effects limited in scope.
23 + Major versions (now expected to be released every 18 or 24 months,
24 and not more often) can introduce new big features (possibly with
25 rough edges and not-fully-stabilized APIs), removal of deprecated
26 features, backward-incompatible changes of behaviour, and possibly
27 major refactorings (that, while ideally transparent to the user,
28 could introduce new bugs). Incompatibilities should however not
29 be introduced gratuitously and abruptly; a proper deprecation path
30 should be duly implemented in the preceding minor releases.
32 - According to this new scheme, the next major version of Automake
33 (the one that had previously been labelled as "1.14") will actually
34 become "Automake 2.0". Automake 1.14 is *this* release (which is
35 a minor one). It introduces new features, deprecations and bug
36 fixes, but no serious backward incompatibility. A partial exception
37 is given by the behavioural changes in the AM_PROG_CC_C_O macro
38 (described in details below) but such changes can also be seen as a
39 fix for the old suboptimal and somewhat confusing behaviour.
41 - See discussion about automake bug#13578 for more details and
42 background: <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13578>
44 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
46 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
48 - Makefile recipes generated by Automake 2.0 will expect to use an
49 'rm' program that doesn't complain when called without any non-option
50 argument if the '-f' option is given (so that commands like "rm -f"
51 and "rm -rf" will act as a no-op, instead of raising usage errors).
52 This behavior of 'rm' is very widespread in the wild, and it will be
53 required in the next POSIX version:
55 <http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=542>
57 Accordingly, AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE now expands some shell code that checks
58 that the default 'rm' program in PATH satisfies this requirement,
59 aborting the configure process if this is not the case. For the
60 moment, it's still possible to force the configuration process to
61 succeed even with a broken 'rm', that that will no longer be the case
64 - Automake 2.0 will require Autoconf 2.70 or later (which is still
65 unreleased at the moment of writing, but is planned to be released
66 before Automake 2.0 is).
68 - Automake 2.0 will drop support for the long-deprecated 'configure.in'
69 name for the Autoconf input file. You are advised to start using the
70 recommended name 'configure.ac' instead, ASAP.
72 - The ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS special make variable will be fully deprecated in
73 Automake 2.0: it will raise warnings in the "obsolete" category (but
74 still no hard error of course, for compatibilities with the many, many
75 packages that still relies on that variable). You are advised to
76 start relying on the new Automake support for AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS
77 instead (which was introduced in Automake 1.13).
79 - Automake 2.0 will remove support for automatic dependency tracking
80 with the SGI C/C++ compilers on IRIX. The SGI depmode has been
81 reported broken "in the wild" already, and we don't think investing
82 time in debugging and fixing is worthwhile, especially considering
83 that SGI has last updated those compilers in 2006, and is expected
84 to retire support for them in December 2013:
85 <http://www.sgi.com/services/support/irix_mips_support.html>
87 - Automake 2.0 will remove support for MS-DOS and Windows 95/98/ME
88 (support for them was offered by relying on the DJGPP project).
89 Note however that both Cygwin and MSYS/MinGW on modern Windows
90 versions will continue to be fully supported.
92 - Automake-provided scripts and makefile recipes might (finally!)
93 start assuming a POSIX shell in Automake 2.0. There still is no
94 certainty about this though: we'd first like to wait and see
95 whether future Autoconf versions will be enhanced to guarantee
96 that such a shell is always found and provided by the checks in
99 - Starting from Automake 2.0, third-party m4 files located in the
100 system-wide aclocal directory, as well as in any directory listed
101 in the ACLOCAL_PATH environment variable, will take precedence
102 over "built-in" Automake macros. For example (assuming Automake
103 is installed in the /usr/local hierarchy), a definition of the
104 AM_PROG_VALAC macro found in '/usr/local/share/aclocal/my-vala.m4'
105 should take precedence over the same-named automake-provided macro
106 (defined in '/usr/local/share/aclocal-2.0/vala.m4').
108 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
112 * C compilation, and the AC_PROG_CC and AM_PROG_CC_C_O macros:
114 - The 'compile' script is now unconditionally required for all packages
115 that perform C compilation (if you are using the '--add-missing'
116 option, automake will fetch that script for you, so you shouldn't
117 need any explicit adjustment). This new behaviour is needed to avoid
118 obscure errors when the 'subdir-objects' option is used, and the
119 compiler is an inferior one that doesn't grasp the combined use of
120 both the "-c -o" options; see discussion about automake bug#13378 for
122 <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13378#35>
123 <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13378#44>
125 - The next major Automake version (2.0) will unconditionally activate
126 the 'subdir-objects' option. In order to smooth out the transition,
127 we now give a warning (in the category 'unsupported') whenever a
128 source file is present in a subdirectory but the 'subdir-object' is
129 not enabled. For example, the following usage will trigger such a
132 bin_PROGRAMS = sub/foo
133 sub_foo_SOURCES = sub/main.c sub/bar.c
135 - Automake will automatically enhance the autoconf-provided macro
136 AC_PROG_CC to force it to check, at configure time, that the
137 C compiler supports the combined use of both the '-c' and '-o'
138 options. The result of this check is saved in the cache variable
139 'am_cv_prog_cc_c_o', and said result can be overridden by
140 pre-defining that variable.
142 - The AM_PROG_CC_C_O macro can still be called, albeit that should no
143 longer be necessary. This macro is now just a thin wrapper around the
144 Automake-enhanced AC_PROG_CC. This means, among the other things,
145 that its behaviour is changed in three ways:
147 1. It no longer invokes the Autoconf-provided AC_PROG_CC_C_O
148 macro behind the scenes.
150 2. It caches the check result in the 'am_cv_prog_cc_c_o' variable,
151 and not in a 'ac_cv_prog_cc_*_c_o' variable whose exact name
152 in only dynamically computed *at configure runtime* from the
153 content of the '$CC' variable.
155 3. It no longer automatically AC_DEFINE the C preprocessor
156 symbol 'NO_MINUS_C_MINUS_O'.
160 - Automake can now be instructed to place '.info' files generated from
161 Texinfo input in the builddir rather than in the srcdir; this is done
162 specifying the new automake option 'info-in-builddir'. This feature
163 was requested by the developers of GCC, GDB, GNU binutils and the GNU
164 bfd library. See the extensive discussion about automake bug#11034
167 - For quite a long time, Automake has been implementing an undocumented
168 hack which ensured that '.info' files which appeared to be cleaned
169 (by being listed in the CLEANFILES or DISTCLEANFILES variables) were
170 built in the builddir rather than in the srcdir; this hack was
171 introduced to ensure better backward-compatibility with package
172 such as Texinfo, which do things like:
174 info_TEXINFOS = texinfo.txi info-stnd.texi info.texi
175 DISTCLEANFILES = texinfo texinfo-* info*.info*
176 # Do not create info files for distribution.
180 in order not to distribute generated '.info' files.
182 Now that we have the 'info-in-builddir' option that explicitly causes
183 generated '.info' files to be placed in the builddir, this hack should
184 be longer necessary, so we deprecate it with runtime warnings. It will
185 likely be removed altogether in Automake 2.0.
187 * Relative directory in Makefile fragments:
189 - The special Automake-time substitutions '%reldir%' and '%canon_reldir%'
190 (and their short versions, '%D%' and '%C%' respectively) can now be used
191 in an included Makefile fragment. The former is substituted with the
192 relative directory of the included fragment (compared to the top-level
193 including Makefile), and the latter with the canonicalized version of
194 the same relative directory.
197 bin_PROGRAMS = # will be updated by included Makefile fragments
198 include src/Makefile.inc
200 # in 'src/Makefile.inc':
201 bin_PROGRAMS += %reldir%/foo
202 %canon_reldir%_foo_SOURCES = %reldir%/bar.c
204 This should be especially useful for packages using a non-recursive
207 * Deprecated distribution formats:
209 - The 'shar' and 'compress' distribution formats are deprecated, and
210 scheduled for removal in Automake 2.0. Accordingly, the use of the
211 'dist-shar' and 'dist-tarZ' will cause warnings at automake runtime
212 (in the 'obsolete' category), and the recipes of the Automake-generated
213 targets 'dist-shar' and 'dist-tarZ' will unconditionally display
214 (non-fatal) warnings at make runtime.
216 * New configure runtime warnings about "rm -f" support:
218 - To simplify transition to Automake 2.0, the shell code expanded by
219 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE now checks (at configure runtime) that the default
220 'rm' program in PATH doesn't complain when called without any
221 non-option argument if the '-f' option is given (so that commands like
222 "rm -f" and "rm -rf" act as a no-op, instead of raising usage errors).
223 If this is not the case, the configure script is aborted, to call the
224 attention of the user on the issue, and invite him to fix his PATH.
225 The checked 'rm' behavior is very widespread in the wild, and will be
226 required by future POSIX versions:
228 <http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=542>
230 The user can still force the configure process to complete even in the
231 presence of a broken 'rm' by defining the ACCEPT_INFERIOR_RM_PROGRAM
232 environment variable to "yes". And the generated Makefiles should
233 still work correctly even when such broken 'rm' is used. But note
234 that this will no longer be the case with Automake 2.0 though, so, if
235 you encounter the warning, please report it to us ASAP (and try to fix
236 your environment as well).
238 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
244 - Fix a minor regression introduced in Automake 1.13.3: when two or more
245 user-defined suffix rules were present in a single Makefile.am,
246 automake would needlessly include definition of some make variables
247 related to C compilation in the generated Makefile.in (bug#14560).
249 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
253 * Documentation fixes:
255 - The documentation no longer mistakenly reports that the obsolete
256 'AM_MKDIR_PROG_P' macro and '$(mkdir_p)' make variable are going
257 to be removed in Automake 2.0.
261 - Byte-compilation of Emacs lisp files could fail spuriously on
262 Solaris, when /bin/ksh or /usr/xpg4/bin/sh were used as shell.
264 - If the same user-defined suffixes were transformed into different
265 Automake-known suffixes in different Makefile.am files in the same
266 project, automake could get confused and generate inconsistent
267 Makefiles (automake bug#14441).
268 For example, if 'Makefile.am' contained a ".ext.cc:" suffix rule,
269 and 'sub/Makefile.am' contained a ".ext.c:" suffix rule, automake
270 would have mistakenly placed into 'Makefile.in' rules to compile
271 "*.c" files into object files, and into 'sub/Makefile.in' rules to
272 compile "*.cc" files into object files --- rather than the other
273 way around. This is now fixed.
277 - The test cases no longer have the executable bit set. This should
278 make it clear that they are not meant to be run directly; as
279 explained in t/README, they can only be run through the custom
280 'runtest' script, or by a "make check" invocation.
282 - The testsuite has seen the introduction of a new helper function
283 'run_make', and several related changes. These serve a two-fold
286 1. Remove brittleness due to the use of "make -e" in test cases.
288 2. Seamlessly allow the use of parallel make ("make -j...") in the
289 test cases, even where redirection of make output is involved
290 (see automake bug#11413 for a description of the subtle issues
293 - Several spurious failures have been fixed (they hit especially
294 MinGW/MSYS builds). See automake bugs #14493, #14494, #14495,
295 #14498, #14499, #14500, #14501, #14517 and #14528.
297 - Some other minor miscellaneous changes and fixlets.
299 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
303 * Documentation fixes:
305 - The long-deprecated but still supported two-arguments invocation form
306 of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is documented once again. This seems the sanest
307 thing to do, given that support for such usage might need to remain
308 in place for an unspecified amount of time in order to cater to people
309 who want to define the version number for their package dynamically at
310 configure runtime (unfortunately, Autoconf does not yet support this
311 scenario, so we cannot delegate the work to it).
313 - The serial testsuite harness is no longer reported as "deprecated",
314 but as "discouraged". We have no plan to remove it, nor to make its
315 use cause runtime warnings.
317 - The parallel testsuite is no longer reported as "experimental"; it
318 is well tested, and should be stable now.
320 - The 'shar' and 'tarZ' distribution formats and the 'dist-shar' and
321 'dist-tarZ' options are obsolescent, and their use is deprecated
322 in the documentation.
324 - Other minor miscellaneous fixes and improvements; in particular,
325 some improvements in cross-references.
327 * Obsolescent features:
329 - Use of suffix-less info files (that can be specified through the
330 '@setfilename' macro in Texinfo input files) is discouraged, and
331 its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete' category. Simply
332 use the '.info' extension for all your info files, transforming
335 @setfilename myprogram
339 @setfilename myprogram.info
341 - Use of Texinfo input files with '.txi' or '.texinfo' extensions
342 is discouraged, and its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete'
343 category. You are advised to simply use the '.texi' extension
348 - When the 'ustar' option is used, the generated configure script no
349 longer risks hanging during the tests for the availability of the
350 'pax' utility, even if the user running configure has a UID or GID
351 that requires more than 21 bits to be represented.
352 See automake bug#8343 and bug#13588.
354 - The obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC work once
355 again, as they did in Automake 1.12.x (albeit printing runtime
356 warnings in the 'obsolete' category). Removing them has turned
357 out to be a very bad idea, because it complicated distro packing
358 enormously. Making them issue fatal warnings, as we did in
359 Automake 1.13, has turned out to be a similarly very bad idea,
360 for exactly the same reason.
362 - aclocal will no longer error out if the first local m4 directory
363 (as specified by the '-I' option or the 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS' or
364 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR' macros) doesn't exist; it will merely report
365 a warning in the 'unsupported' category. This is done to support
366 some pre-existing real-world usages. See automake bug#13514.
368 - aclocal will no longer consider directories for extra m4 files more
369 than once, even if they are specified multiple times. This ensures
370 packages that specify both
372 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4]) in configure.ac
373 ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4 in Makefile.am
375 will work correctly, even when the 'm4' directory contains no
376 package-specific files, but is used only to install third-party
377 m4 files (as can happen with e.g., "libtoolize --install").
378 See automake bug#13514.
380 - Analysis of make flags in Automake-generated rules has been made more
381 robust, and more future-proof. For example, in presence of make that
382 (like '-I') take an argument, the characters in said argument will no
383 longer be spuriously considered as a set of additional make options.
384 In particular, automake-generated rules will no longer spuriously
385 believe to be running in dry mode ("make -n") if run with an invocation
386 like "make -I noob"; nor will they believe to be running in keep-going
387 mode ("make -k") if run with an invocation like "make -I kool"
388 (automake bug#12554).
390 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
396 - Use of the obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC now
397 causes a clear and helpful error message, instead of obscure ones
398 (issue introduced in Automake 1.13).
400 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
406 - ylwrap renames properly header guards in generated header files
407 (*.h), instead of leaving Y_TAB_H.
409 - ylwrap now also converts header guards in implementation files
410 (*.c). Because ylwrap failed to rename properly #include in the
411 implementation files, current versions of Bison (e.g., 2.7)
412 duplicate the generated header file in the implementation file.
413 The header guard then protects the implementation file from
414 duplicate definitions from the header file.
416 * Version requirements:
418 - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is now required.
420 - The rules to build PDF and DVI output from Texinfo input now
421 require Texinfo 4.9 or later.
425 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
426 option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
427 for more background: <http://debbugs.gnu.org/11034>.
429 - The deprecated aclocal option '--acdir' has been removed. You
430 should use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir'
431 instead (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
433 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros have been removed:
435 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
436 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
437 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
438 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
439 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
440 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
441 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
442 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
443 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
444 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
447 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
449 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
450 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is no longer documented. It's still supported
451 though (albeit with a warning in the 'obsolete' category), to cater
452 for people who want to define the version number for their package
453 dynamically (e.g., from the current VCS revision). We'll have to
454 continue this support until Autoconf itself is fixed to allow better
455 support for such dynamic version numbers.
457 * Elisp byte-compilation:
459 - The byte compilation of '.el' files into '.elc' files is now done
460 with a suffix rule. This has simplified the compilation process, and
461 more importantly made it less brittle. The downside is that emacs is
462 now invoked once for each '.el' files, which cause some noticeable
463 slowdowns. These should however be mitigated on multicore machines
464 (which are becoming the norm today) if concurrent make ("make -j")
467 - Elisp files placed in a subdirectory are now byte-compiled to '.elc'
468 files in the same subdirectory; for example, byte-compiling of file
469 'sub/foo.el' file will result in 'sub/foo.elc' rather than in
470 'foo.elc'. This behaviour is backward-incompatible with older
471 Automake versions, but it is more natural and more sane. See also
474 - The Emacs invocation performing byte-compilation of '.el' files honors
475 the $(AM_ELCFLAGS) and $(ELCFLAGS) variables; as typical, the former
476 one is developer-reserved and the latter one user-reserved.
478 - The 'elisp-comp' script, once provided by Automake, has been rendered
479 obsoleted by the just-described changes, and thus removed.
481 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
483 - The parallel testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the
484 'parallel-tests' option) is the default one; the older serial
485 testsuite harness will still be available through the use of the
486 'serial-tests' option (introduced in Automake 1.12).
488 - The 'color-tests' option is now unconditionally activated by default.
489 In particular, this means that testsuite output is now colorized by
490 default if the attached terminal seems to support ANSI escapes, and
491 that the user can force output colorization by setting the variable
492 AM_COLOR_TESTS to "always". The 'color-tests' is still recognized
493 for backward-compatibility, although it's a handled as a no-op now.
495 * Silent rules support:
497 - Support for silent rules is now always active in Automake-generated
498 Makefiles. So, although the verbose output is still the default,
499 the user can now always use "./configure --enable-silent-rules" or
500 "make V=0" to enable quieter output in the package he's building.
502 - The 'silent-rules' option has now become a no-op, preserved for
503 backward-compatibility only. In particular, its use no longer
504 disables the warnings in the 'portability-recursive' category.
508 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now require
509 Texinfo 4.9 or later.
511 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now use the
512 '--build-dir' option, to keep the auxiliary files used by texi2dvi
513 and texi2pdf around without cluttering the build directory, and to
514 make it possible to run the "dvi" and "pdf" recipes in parallel.
516 * Automatic remake rules and 'missing' script:
518 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to update the timestamp of
519 out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
520 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
521 of it). It just gives a useful warning, and in some cases also a
522 tip about how to obtain such a tool.
524 - The missing script has thus become useless as a (poor) way to work
525 around the sketched-timestamps issues that can happen for projects
526 that keep generated files committed in their VCS repository. Such
527 projects are now encouraged to write a custom "fix-timestamps.sh"
528 script to avoid such issues; a simple example is provided in the
529 "CVS and generated files" chapter of the automake manual.
533 - The user can now define his own recursive targets that recurse
534 in the directories specified in $(SUBDIRS). This can be done by
535 specifying the name of such targets in invocations of the new
536 'AM_EXTRA_RECURSIVE_TARGETS' m4 macro.
540 - Any failure in the recipe of the "tags", "ctags", "cscope" or
541 "cscopelist" targets in a subdirectory is now propagated to the
542 top-level make invocation.
544 - Tags are correctly computed also for files in _SOURCES variables that
545 only list files with non-standard suffixes (see automake bug#12372).
547 * Improvements to aclocal and related rebuilds rules:
549 - Autoconf-provided macros AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR and AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS
550 are now traced by aclocal, and can be used to declare the local m4
551 include directories. Formerly, one had to specify it with an explicit
552 '-I' option to the 'aclocal' invocation.
554 - The special make variable ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS is deprecated; future
555 Automake versions will warn about its use, and later version will
556 remove support for it altogether.
558 * The depcomp script:
560 - Dropped support for libtool 1.4.
562 - Various internal refactorings. They should cause no visible change,
563 but the chance for regression is there anyway, so please report any
564 unexpected or suspicious behaviour.
566 - Support for pre-8.0 versions of the Intel C Compiler has been dropped.
567 This should cause no problem, since icc 8.0 has been released in
568 December 2003 -- almost nine years ago.
570 - Support for tcc (the Tiny C Compiler) has been improved, and is now
571 handled through a dedicated 'tcc' mode.
575 - ylwrap generates header guards with a single '_' for series of non
576 alphabetic characters, instead of several. This is what Bison >=
579 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
581 Bugs fixed in 1.12.6:
583 * Python-related bugs:
585 - The default installation location for python modules has been improved
586 for Python 3 on Debian and Ubuntu systems, changing from:
588 ${prefix}/lib/python3/dist-packages
592 ${prefix}/lib/python3.x/site-packages
594 This change should ensure modules installed using the default ${prefix}
595 "/usr/local" are found by default by system python 3.x installations.
596 See automake bug#10227.
598 - Python byte-compilation supports the new layout mandated by PEP-3147,
599 with its __pycache__ directory (automake bug#8847).
601 * Build system issues:
603 - The maintainer rebuild rules for Makefiles and aclocal.m4 in
604 Automake's own build system works correctly again (bug introduced
609 - The Vala-related tests has been changed to adjust to the removal of
610 the 'posix' profile in the valac compiler. See automake bug#12934
613 - Some spurious testsuite failures related to older tools and systems
616 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
622 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro has been enhanced to takes two further
623 optional arguments; it's signature now being
625 AM_PROG_VALAC([MINIMUM-VERSION], [ACTION-IF-FOUND],
626 [ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND])
628 - By default, AM_PROG_VALAC no longer aborts the configure invocation
629 if the Vala compiler found is too old, but simply prints a warning
630 messages (as it did when the Vala compiler was not found). This
631 should avoid unnecessary difficulties for end users that just want
632 to compile the unmodified, distributed Vala-generated C sources,
633 but happens to have an old Vala compiler in their PATH. This fixes
636 - If no proper Vala compiler is found at configure runtime, AM_PROG_VALAC
637 will set the AC_SUBST'd variable 'VALAC' to 'valac' rather than to ':'.
638 This is a better default, because with it a triggered makefile rule
639 invoking a Vala compilation will clearly fail with an informative error
640 message like "valac: command not found", rather than silently, with
641 the error possibly going unnoticed or triggering harder-to-diagnose
642 fallout failures in later steps.
644 * Miscellaneous changes:
646 - automake and aclocal no longer honours the 'perllibdir' environment
647 variable. That had always been intended only as an hack required in
648 the testsuite, not meant for any use beyond that.
650 Bugs fixed in 1.12.5:
652 * Long-standing bugs:
654 - Automake no longer generates spurious remake rules invoking autoheader
655 to regenerate the template corresponding to header files specified after
656 the first one in AC_CONFIG_HEADERS (automake bug#12495).
658 - When wrapping Microsoft tools, the 'compile' script falls back to
659 finding classic 'libname.a' style libraries when 'name.lib' and
660 'name.dll.lib' aren't available.
662 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
666 * Warnings and deprecations:
668 - Warnings in the 'obsolete' category are enabled by default both in
669 automake and aclocal.
671 * Miscellaneous changes:
673 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
675 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
679 * Miscellaneous changes:
681 - The '.m4' files provided by Automake no longer define serial numbers.
682 This should cause no difference in the behaviour of aclocal though.
684 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
686 - There is initial support for automatic dependency tracking with the
687 Portland Group C/C++ compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'pgcc'.
689 Bugs fixed in 1.12.3:
691 * Long-standing bugs:
693 - Instead of renaming only self-references of files (typically for
694 #lines), ylwrap now also renames references to the other generated
695 files. This fixes support for GLR and C++ parsers from Bison (PR
696 automake/491 and automake bug#7648): 'parser.c' now properly
697 #includes 'parser.h' instead of 'y.tab.h'.
699 - Generated files unknown to ylwrap are now preserved. This fixes
700 C++ support for Bison (automake bug#7648): location.hh and the
701 like are no longer discarded.
703 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
707 * Warnings and deprecations:
709 - Automake now issues a warning (in the 'portability' category) if
710 'configure.in' is used instead of 'configure.ac' as the Autoconf
711 input file. Such a warning will also be present in the next
712 Autoconf version (2.70).
716 - Recursive cleaning rules descends into the $(SUBDIRS) in the natural
717 order (as done by the other recursive rules), rather than in the
718 inverse order. They used to do that in order to work a round a
719 limitation in an older implementation of the automatic dependency
720 tracking support, but that limitation had been lifted years ago
721 already, when the automatic dependency tracking based on side-effects
722 of compilation had been introduced.
724 - Cleaning rules for compiled objects (both "plain" and libtool) work
725 better when subdir objects are involved, not triggering a distinct
726 'rm' invocation for each such object. They do so by removing *any*
727 compiled object file that is in the same directory of a subdir
728 object. See automake bug#10697.
730 * Silent rules support:
732 - A new predefined $(AM_V_P) make variable is provided; it expands
733 to a shell conditional that can be used in recipes to know whether
734 make is being run in silent or verbose mode.
736 Bugs fixed in 1.12.2:
738 * SECURITY VULNERABILITIES!
740 - The 'distcheck' recipe no longer grants temporary world-write
741 permissions on the extracted distdir. Even if such rights were
742 only granted for a vanishingly small time window, the implied
743 race condition proved to be enough to allow a local attacker
744 to run arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running
745 "make distcheck". This is CVE-2012-3386.
747 * Long-standing bugs:
749 - The "recheck" targets behaves better in the face of build failures
750 related to previously failed tests. For example, if a test is a
751 compiled program that must be rerun by "make recheck", and its
752 compilation fails, it will still be rerun by further "make recheck"
753 invocations. See automake bug#11791.
755 * Bugs introduced by 1.12.1:
757 - Automake provides once again the '$(mkdir_p)' make variable and the
758 '@mkdir_p@' substitution (both as simple aliases for '$(MKDIR_P)'),
759 for better backward-compatibility.
761 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
765 * New supported languages:
767 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
768 the support for Objective C.
770 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
772 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
773 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
774 category. Starting from some future major Automake release (likely
775 post-1.13), such usages will no longer be allowed.
777 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
778 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
779 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
781 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
782 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
783 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
786 * Miscellaneous changes:
788 - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
789 Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) will no longer
790 be accepted. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify such
791 POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure time.
792 Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to override its
793 conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be used (pointing
794 to the shell that will be used to run the Automake test cases).
796 Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
798 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
800 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
803 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
805 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
806 silently ignoring them.
808 * Long-standing bugs:
810 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
811 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
812 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
815 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
816 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
818 - The post-processing of output "#line" directives done the ylwrap
819 script is more faithful w.r.t. files in a subdirectory; for example,
820 if the processed file is "src/grammar.y", ylwrap will correctly
821 produce directives like:
822 #line 7 "src/grammar.y"
827 * Bugs with new Perl versions:
829 - Aclocal works correctly with perl 5.16.0 (automake bug#11543).
831 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
835 * Obsolete features removed:
837 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
840 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
842 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
843 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
844 directory of the Automake distribution).
846 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
847 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
848 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
851 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
852 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
854 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
856 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
857 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
859 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
860 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
864 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
866 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
868 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
869 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
870 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
871 might change in future versions.
873 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
874 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
875 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
877 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
878 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
879 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
880 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
881 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
882 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
885 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
886 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
887 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
888 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
891 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
892 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
893 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
894 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
895 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
896 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
897 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
898 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
899 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
900 no longer be used to define a test runner, and the command specified
901 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
902 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
905 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
906 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
907 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
911 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
913 OTOH, this is no longer a valid usage:
915 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
916 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
920 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
921 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
923 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
929 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
931 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
932 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
933 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
934 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
936 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
937 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
939 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
940 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
941 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
942 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
944 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
947 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
949 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
950 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
951 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
953 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
954 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
955 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
956 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
957 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
958 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
959 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
961 * Miscellaneous changes:
963 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
964 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
966 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
967 recursion as much as possible.
969 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
970 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
971 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
973 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
974 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
976 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
978 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
979 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
980 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
981 left to clutter the build directory.
983 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
985 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
986 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
987 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
988 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
990 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
991 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
994 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
995 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
996 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
997 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
998 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
1001 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
1002 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
1007 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
1009 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1011 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
1012 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
1014 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness no longer fails
1015 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in
1016 a subdirectory, like in:
1018 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
1020 * Long-standing bugs:
1022 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
1024 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
1027 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
1028 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
1029 files coincides with the top-level directory.
1031 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
1032 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
1033 through other variables, such as in:
1035 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
1037 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
1038 content, not only a conditional definition.
1040 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
1041 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
1042 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
1043 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
1044 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
1045 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
1046 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
1047 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
1049 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1051 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
1053 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
1055 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
1056 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
1058 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
1059 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
1060 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
1062 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1066 * Miscellaneous changes:
1068 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
1069 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
1070 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
1071 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
1072 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
1074 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
1075 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
1076 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
1078 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
1079 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
1080 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
1081 to change in future versions).
1083 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
1084 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
1086 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
1088 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
1090 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
1091 no longer cause spurious failures upon "make install".
1093 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
1094 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
1095 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
1096 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
1098 * Long-standing bugs:
1100 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
1101 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
1102 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
1103 Vala sources was supported.
1105 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
1106 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
1109 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" no longer cause the generated
1110 install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory; for example, if
1111 Makefile.am contains something like:
1113 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS =
1115 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
1118 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
1120 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1124 * Miscellaneous changes:
1126 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
1127 the 'silent-rules' option.
1129 - The master copy of the 'gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
1132 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to wrap calls to 'tar'.
1134 - "make dist" no longer wraps 'tar' invocations with the 'missing'
1135 script. Similarly, the obsolescent variable '$(AMTAR)' (which you
1136 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) no longer invokes the 'missing' script
1137 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the 'tar' program itself.
1139 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
1141 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
1142 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
1143 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
1144 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
1145 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
1147 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
1148 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
1150 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
1151 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
1153 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
1154 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
1155 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
1158 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
1160 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
1162 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
1163 'pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
1165 - The parallel-tests harness no longer trips on sed implementations
1166 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
1167 least on Solaris 8).
1169 * Long-standing bugs:
1171 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
1172 rules. This allows 'make' to trigger a rerun of 'automake' also if
1173 some previously needed '.am' file has been removed.
1175 - The 'silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
1176 for the uncommon 'make' implementations that do not support the
1177 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such 'make'
1178 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
1179 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
1180 "make V=0" or "make V=1".
1182 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
1184 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1188 * Changes to aclocal:
1190 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
1191 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
1193 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
1194 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
1195 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
1196 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
1198 * Miscellaneous changes:
1200 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
1201 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
1204 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
1205 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
1207 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
1208 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
1209 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
1210 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
1212 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
1213 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
1215 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
1216 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
1217 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
1218 the list of options.
1220 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
1221 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
1222 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
1223 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
1224 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
1225 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
1226 still continue to work as before.
1228 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
1229 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
1230 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
1231 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
1233 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
1234 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
1235 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
1237 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
1238 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
1239 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
1241 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
1243 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1245 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
1246 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
1248 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
1249 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
1251 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
1252 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
1253 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
1254 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
1255 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
1256 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
1258 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
1259 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
1260 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
1261 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
1263 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
1264 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
1266 * Long-standing bugs:
1268 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
1269 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
1270 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
1272 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
1273 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
1275 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
1276 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
1279 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
1280 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
1282 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
1283 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
1284 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
1286 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
1287 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
1289 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
1290 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
1292 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
1293 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
1294 `subdir-objects' option was used.
1296 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
1298 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
1299 "make all", but only for "make check".
1301 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
1302 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
1303 a broken Makefile.in.
1305 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
1306 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
1308 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
1309 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
1310 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
1313 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1315 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
1317 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
1319 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1321 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
1322 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
1324 * Long standing bugs:
1326 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
1327 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
1328 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
1329 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
1330 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
1332 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
1333 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
1335 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
1336 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
1338 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
1339 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
1340 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
1341 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
1343 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1347 * Version requirements:
1349 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
1351 * Changes to aclocal:
1353 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
1354 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
1355 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
1357 * Changes to automake:
1359 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
1360 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
1361 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
1362 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
1363 enable this experimental feature.
1365 * Changes to Libtool support:
1367 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
1370 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
1371 config.lt is removed correctly now.
1373 * Languages changes:
1375 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
1376 Fortran, and Ratfor).
1378 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
1379 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
1381 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
1383 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
1384 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
1386 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
1389 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
1391 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
1392 Vala 0.7.0 or later.
1394 * Miscellaneous changes:
1396 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
1398 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
1400 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
1402 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
1403 checkout -d automake HEAD
1405 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
1406 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
1408 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
1409 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
1410 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
1411 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
1414 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
1416 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
1418 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
1420 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
1421 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
1423 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
1425 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
1427 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
1428 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
1429 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
1430 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
1432 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
1433 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
1435 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
1436 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
1438 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
1439 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
1440 issued multiple times.
1442 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
1443 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
1444 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
1445 entries from file lists.
1447 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
1448 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
1449 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
1450 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
1452 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
1453 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
1454 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
1455 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
1456 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
1457 target directory creation.
1459 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
1460 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
1461 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
1463 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
1464 an otherwise up to date tree.
1466 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
1468 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
1469 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
1470 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
1471 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
1472 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
1474 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
1475 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
1476 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
1477 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
1479 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
1480 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
1481 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
1482 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
1483 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
1484 for backward-compatible verbose output.
1486 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
1487 by --program-transform.
1489 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
1492 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
1493 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
1496 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
1497 the default setting.
1499 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
1500 useful especially for multi-line values.
1502 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
1503 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
1505 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
1506 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
1507 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
1508 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
1509 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
1510 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
1511 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
1515 * Long-standing bugs:
1517 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1519 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
1520 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
1522 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
1523 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
1525 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
1526 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
1527 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
1529 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
1531 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
1533 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
1534 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
1535 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
1536 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
1537 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
1538 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
1539 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
1540 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
1542 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
1543 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
1544 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
1545 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
1547 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
1548 take care not to create files.
1550 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
1551 disabled dependency tracking.
1553 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
1554 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
1556 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
1557 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
1559 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
1560 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
1562 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
1563 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
1565 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
1566 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
1567 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
1568 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
1570 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
1572 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1573 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
1575 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
1576 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1577 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
1579 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
1580 followed by directories containing config headers.
1582 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1586 * Version requirements:
1588 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
1590 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
1592 * Changes to aclocal:
1594 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
1596 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
1597 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
1599 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
1600 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
1601 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
1602 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
1604 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
1605 before they are installed.
1607 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
1608 projects using automake.
1610 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
1611 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
1612 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
1613 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
1614 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
1615 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
1616 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
1618 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
1619 been generated using the same autoconf version.
1621 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
1623 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
1625 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
1626 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
1627 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
1628 library objects directory is supported.
1630 * Change to Libtool support:
1632 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
1633 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
1635 * Yacc and Lex changes:
1637 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
1638 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
1641 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
1642 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
1644 * Languages changes:
1646 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
1647 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
1648 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
1650 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
1651 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
1653 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
1654 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
1656 - Improved support for Objective C:
1657 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
1658 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1660 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
1661 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
1662 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1664 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
1666 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
1667 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
1668 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
1669 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
1671 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
1672 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
1673 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
1675 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
1676 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
1677 If your package used both variables, as in
1679 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1680 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1681 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
1684 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
1686 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1687 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1688 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
1691 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
1692 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
1693 considered internally.
1695 * New installation targets:
1697 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
1702 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
1703 You can customize them with *-local variants:
1709 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
1710 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
1711 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
1712 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
1714 * Miscellaneous changes:
1716 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
1717 are specified using shell variables.
1719 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
1720 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
1721 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
1722 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
1723 be able to output rules anyway.
1724 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
1726 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
1727 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1728 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
1730 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
1731 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
1732 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
1733 use `-Wno-portability'.
1735 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
1736 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
1737 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
1738 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
1739 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
1740 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1742 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1743 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1745 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1748 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1749 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1750 chapter of the manual.
1752 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1756 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1758 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1759 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1760 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1761 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1764 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1765 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1766 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1767 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1770 * Change to Libtool support:
1772 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1773 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1775 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1776 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1779 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1781 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1783 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1785 * Changes to aclocal:
1787 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1788 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1789 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1790 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1791 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1792 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1793 most famous instance of this bug.)
1795 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1796 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1797 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1798 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1799 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1800 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1801 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1802 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1803 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1806 * Portability improvements:
1808 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1809 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1810 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1812 - Variables augmented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1813 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 columns
1814 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1820 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1821 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1823 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1828 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1829 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1830 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1831 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1833 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1835 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1837 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1839 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1840 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1841 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1842 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1844 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1847 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1848 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1850 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1852 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1854 * Long-standing bugs:
1856 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1857 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1859 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1861 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1863 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1865 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1867 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1869 * Long-standing bugs:
1871 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1872 overridden by the user.
1874 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1877 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1880 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1882 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1884 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1885 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1887 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1889 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1890 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1892 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1894 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1896 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1898 * Long-standing bugs:
1900 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1901 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1903 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1904 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1905 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1906 in packages configured with
1907 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1909 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1910 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1912 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1913 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1915 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1916 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1918 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1919 where Automake will try to define them.
1921 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1922 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1925 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1926 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1927 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1929 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1931 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1932 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1934 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1935 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1936 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1938 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1940 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1941 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1942 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1944 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1945 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1946 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1948 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1949 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1955 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1956 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1958 * New sections in manual:
1960 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1961 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1962 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1964 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1968 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1969 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1970 install anything on Tru64.
1972 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1975 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1979 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1981 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1982 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1985 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1986 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1987 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1988 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1989 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1990 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1991 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1993 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1994 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1995 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1996 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1998 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1999 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
2000 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
2001 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
2002 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
2003 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
2004 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
2005 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
2006 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
2007 letting aclocal output them.
2009 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
2010 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
2012 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
2013 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
2014 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
2016 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
2017 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
2020 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
2021 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
2022 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
2025 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
2026 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
2027 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
2028 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
2029 argument was supplied.
2030 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
2031 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
2032 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
2033 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
2036 * Long-standing bugs:
2038 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
2039 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
2041 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
2043 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
2044 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
2045 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
2046 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
2047 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
2048 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
2050 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
2051 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
2052 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
2054 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
2055 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
2056 @setfilename statement.
2058 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
2059 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
2060 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
2062 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
2063 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
2064 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
2065 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
2066 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
2068 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
2069 doesn't conform to POSIX.
2071 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
2076 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
2078 * Spurious failures in test suite:
2080 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
2081 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
2082 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
2083 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
2084 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
2086 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2092 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
2096 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
2100 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
2101 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
2102 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
2105 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
2106 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
2108 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
2109 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
2110 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
2112 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
2113 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
2114 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
2115 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
2117 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
2118 target or variable definitions which override Automake
2121 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
2123 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
2124 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
2126 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
2127 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
2128 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
2129 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
2130 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
2131 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
2132 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
2133 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
2135 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
2136 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
2137 non-PHONY `html' rule.
2139 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
2140 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
2143 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
2144 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
2145 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
2146 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
2147 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
2148 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
2149 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
2150 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
2151 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
2153 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
2154 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
2155 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
2156 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
2157 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
2158 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
2159 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
2160 levels of the build tree).
2162 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
2163 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
2164 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
2166 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
2167 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
2168 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
2169 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
2171 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
2172 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
2173 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
2175 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
2176 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
2177 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
2178 called conditionally.
2180 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
2182 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
2183 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
2185 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
2186 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
2189 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
2190 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
2191 (which is to abort).
2193 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
2194 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
2195 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
2196 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
2197 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
2200 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
2201 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
2202 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
2204 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
2205 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
2206 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
2207 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
2208 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
2209 install anything unless emacs is found.
2211 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
2212 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
2213 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
2214 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
2215 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
2219 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
2220 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
2221 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
2222 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
2223 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
2225 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
2226 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
2227 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
2228 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
2230 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
2231 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
2232 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
2233 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
2234 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
2235 since Autoconf 2.54.)
2237 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
2238 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
2239 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
2240 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
2241 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
2242 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
2247 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
2248 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
2249 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
2264 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
2266 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
2267 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
2277 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
2278 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
2279 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
2281 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
2282 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
2283 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
2284 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
2285 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
2286 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
2289 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
2290 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
2292 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
2294 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
2295 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
2296 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
2297 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
2298 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
2300 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
2301 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
2302 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
2303 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
2304 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
2305 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
2308 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
2309 changed, as the inline rule already does.
2311 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
2312 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
2313 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
2314 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
2315 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
2317 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
2318 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
2319 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
2320 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
2321 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
2323 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
2324 of some target, as in
2326 clean: my-clean-rule
2328 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
2329 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
2330 all such overriding definitions.
2332 It should be noted that almost all of these targets support a *-local
2333 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
2334 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
2337 clean-local: my-clean-rule
2339 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
2340 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
2341 to support multiple automake versions.
2345 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
2347 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
2349 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
2350 at least three reasons for this:
2351 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
2352 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
2353 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
2354 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
2355 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
2356 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
2357 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
2358 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
2359 completely legitimate data file on another system.
2361 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
2362 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
2363 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
2364 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
2365 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
2366 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
2368 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
2369 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
2370 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
2372 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2374 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
2375 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
2376 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
2377 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
2379 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
2380 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
2381 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
2382 (Debian bug #213524).
2383 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
2384 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
2386 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
2387 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
2388 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
2389 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
2390 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
2391 argument is given. (PR/399)
2392 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
2393 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
2394 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
2395 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
2396 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
2397 * Resurrect multilib support.
2398 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2399 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
2401 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
2403 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
2404 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
2405 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
2406 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
2407 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2408 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
2409 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
2410 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
2412 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
2413 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
2414 (Debian bug #191717)
2415 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
2416 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
2417 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
2418 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
2420 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
2421 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
2422 the Emacs implementation)
2423 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
2424 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
2425 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
2426 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
2427 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
2428 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
2429 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
2430 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
2431 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
2433 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
2434 * Minor documentation fixes.
2436 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
2437 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
2438 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
2439 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
2440 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
2441 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
2442 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
2443 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
2444 * Support for DJGPP:
2445 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
2446 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
2447 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
2448 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
2449 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
2450 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
2451 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
2452 PACKAGE and VERSION.
2454 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
2455 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
2456 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
2458 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
2460 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
2461 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
2462 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2464 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
2466 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
2468 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
2469 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
2470 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
2471 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
2472 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
2473 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
2474 and augmented in another condition.
2475 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
2476 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
2477 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
2478 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
2479 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
2480 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
2481 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
2483 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
2484 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
2485 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
2486 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
2487 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
2488 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
2489 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
2490 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
2491 (but not all) shell metachars.
2492 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
2493 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
2494 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2495 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
2496 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
2498 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
2499 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
2501 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
2502 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
2503 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
2505 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
2506 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
2507 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
2508 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
2509 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2510 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
2512 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
2513 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
2515 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
2516 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
2517 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
2518 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
2519 `make distcheck' fails.
2520 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
2521 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
2522 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
2525 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
2526 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
2527 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
2528 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
2529 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
2530 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
2531 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
2532 `configure.ac' for you.
2533 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
2534 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
2535 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
2536 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
2537 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
2538 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
2539 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
2540 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
2541 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
2542 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
2543 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
2545 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
2547 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
2548 was defined for another condition.
2549 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
2550 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
2551 a more accurate view of it.
2552 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
2553 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
2554 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
2555 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
2556 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
2557 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
2561 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
2562 * Bug fixes, including:
2563 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
2564 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
2565 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
2566 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
2569 * Many bug fixes, including:
2570 - Requiring the current version works.
2571 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
2572 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
2574 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
2575 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
2576 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
2579 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
2580 * Many bug fixes, including:
2581 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
2582 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
2583 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
2584 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
2585 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
2588 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
2589 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
2590 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
2591 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
2592 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
2593 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
2594 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
2595 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
2596 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
2598 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
2599 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
2600 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
2601 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
2602 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
2603 so it can be overridden easily.
2604 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
2605 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
2606 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
2607 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
2608 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
2609 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
2610 * Added uninstall-hook target
2611 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
2612 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
2613 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
2614 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
2615 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
2616 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
2617 to be a real assembler.
2618 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
2619 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
2620 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
2621 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
2622 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
2623 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
2626 * Support for `configure.ac'.
2627 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
2628 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
2629 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
2630 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
2631 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
2633 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
2634 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
2635 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
2636 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
2637 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
2638 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
2639 * Compiled Java support
2640 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
2644 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
2645 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
2646 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
2647 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
2648 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
2649 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
2650 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
2651 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
2652 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
2657 * Better Cygwin32 support
2658 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
2659 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
2660 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
2661 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
2662 * Built-in support for assembly
2663 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
2664 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
2665 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
2666 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
2667 * Preliminary support for Java
2668 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
2669 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
2673 * Better DejaGnu support
2674 * Added no-installinfo option
2675 * Added Emacs Lisp support
2676 * Added --no-force option
2677 * Included `aclocal' program
2678 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
2679 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
2680 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
2681 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
2682 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
2683 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
2684 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
2685 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
2686 handling generally rewritten
2687 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
2688 * can now put config.h into a subdir
2689 * Added dist-all target
2690 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
2691 * Support for "yacc -d"
2692 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
2693 in generated Makefile.in
2694 * Special --cygnus mode
2695 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
2696 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
2697 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
2698 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
2699 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
2700 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
2701 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
2702 * Added `missing' support
2704 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
2708 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
2709 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
2714 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
2716 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
2718 * New "distcheck" target
2722 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
2724 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
2725 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
2726 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
2727 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
2728 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
2729 * Added short option names.
2730 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
2734 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
2735 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
2736 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
2737 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
2738 * Now handles TESTS macro
2739 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
2740 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2741 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2742 * Better error messages in many cases
2743 * Program names are canonicalized
2744 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2748 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2749 * Beginnings of a test suite
2750 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2751 * Doesn't print anything when running
2752 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2753 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2754 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2755 * Added --verbose option
2756 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2757 configure-generated names
2758 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2760 * --strictness=gnu is default
2764 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2765 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2766 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2767 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2768 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2769 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2770 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2771 foo_SOURCES variable.
2772 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2773 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2776 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2777 * More standards checking
2779 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2780 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2781 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2784 * Works with Perl 4 again
2787 * Added --install-missing option.
2788 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2789 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2790 * Generates .PHONY target
2791 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2792 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2796 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2799 * New uniform naming scheme.
2800 * --strictness option
2802 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2804 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2807 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2810 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2811 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2812 * man page installation reworked.
2813 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2816 * Reimplemented in Perl
2817 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2818 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2819 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2820 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2823 * Automatic dependency tracking
2824 * More documentation
2825 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2826 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2827 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2829 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2833 Copyright (C) 1995-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2835 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2836 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2837 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2840 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2841 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2842 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2843 GNU General Public License for more details.
2845 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2846 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.